Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2804 m
- Slope Angle
- 26°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>no wind equals no slabs in most areas, but there is plenty of snow available for transport when they do pickup</p>
Tired old cornices with new paint job, only stomped around smaller test areas
Big Drift not so drifty
look at snow in a couple of different places
not enough wind to kite
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>localized soft slabs and new cornices formed from new snow are reactive, but older cornices are tired and for the most part seem welded in place. Spatial variability still remains, we found old wind slab 3'-4' + deep and other areas that no slab exists at all, and with new snow are now not as obvious, so good history of what is underneath is very helpful, We experienced localized collapsing but things were just not connected. Increasing winds will increase hazard quickly</p> <p>cannot ignore poor structure to the ground, 1.2 " of water weight adds stress to pack but comparatively warm temps are settling new snow out and without wind, just not enough load has been added. have to put hazard at moderate, but just no evidence to the contrary, just not willing to hang it out this year due to poor structure</p>
new snow fell right side up, seems bonded well to old surface but did detect some thin crusts at interface, could be wet snow or sun/temp crusts? Only actual natural activity we noticed was some small soft cornice falls and sluffing, all limited to new snow. New snow has improved conditions, and as long as you traveled on areas that had old wind slabs or on old tracks, the older pack would support you. Wind exposed ridgelines, fetches, etc made for easy travel, but as soon as you got into sheltered areas that still harbor the weakest snow, it was back to floundering to the dirt, we just added another foot of new snow on top of weak faceted crystals and trail breaking was a chore. We attempted to locate old uptracks to make travel easier, and when you wander off track, there was no support even on skis.